Are you sick of using the same old fonts in your documents and presentations? Fonts like Times New Roman, Monotype Corsiva, Comic Sans and Papyrus?
Install some new fonts on your computer to rejuvenate your creativity!
Where to find new fonts
You can buy fonts online and download them, but there is a limitless supply of free fonts available on the web. Here are a few of my favourite places to find fonts:
- Da Font
- MyFonts.com
- The free fonts section on Smashing Magazine
- Font Squirrel
A word of warning about free fonts: fonts will specify if they are truly free or if they are “shareware”, “free for personal use” or “donationware”.
- Public Domain/GNU GPL : You can do whatever you want
- Free : You can use for all your applications
- Free for Personal Use : If in doubt, contact the author
- Shareware : You can try it but if you use it, you really should pay
- Donationware : Same as Shareware but instead of paying the author you make a donation to a charity
- Demo :Same as Shareware but the font is usually incompleteDefinitions sourced from the Da Font forums
How to install fonts
Once you have downloaded some fonts (because, let’s face it, who can stop at one?), you’ll find the fonts either download in their native format (with filenames ending in .ttf or .otf) or as a zip file. If they are in a zip file, simply extract them and save them to your computer.
If you need help with installing fonts, check out these instructions I found online:
All done!
Now that you’ve installed some funky new fonts, go and open your document or presentation and have fun!
One more thing
Installing fonts is fantastic and can make your work look fantastic, but if someone else wants to open the same file where you’ve use a downloaded font, they will need to install the font as well.
If you want to be clever, you could embed the font into the file in PowerPoint, Publisher or Word. But keep in mind that the filesize will increase!
This post was written by...
Rah Gardiner – who has written 145 posts on Smarter Admins.
Hi there, I’m Rah and I’m the face behind Smarter Admins. I currently work full-time as a Personal Assistant, but I have also been a Secretary, Customer Service Assistant, Receptionist, Office Coordinator, Editorial Assistant and Administrator. I started full-time work over 15 years ago—before I even finished high school—and I haven’t looked back.
{ 0 comments… add one now }